MPAA sues Torrent and Usenet search sites
By Steve Malone
Posted on 28 Feb 2006 at 11:15
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has opened up a new front in its war against illegal downloaders. The Hollywood studios' trade association has started legal proceedings against search engines and Usenet news groups.
Among the sites on the receiving end of the MPAA writs are Torrentspy.com and Isohunt.com. The organisation claims that they 'facilitate infringements of
copyrighted works by millions of people by providing searchers with the locations to find pirated movies'.
The MPAA lawyers have also hit NZB-Zone.com, BinNews.com and DVDRs.net that provide indexes of UseNet posts. As with the Torrent-based search engines, the MPAA claims that the sites make it easier for downloaders to find illegal material. The Association says that NZB-Zone currently offers over 3.3 million files, including Star Wars Episode III, Wedding Crashers, Chronicles of Narnia, 40 Year-Old Virgin and King Kong; BinNews.com offers files for over 3,000 movies; and DVDRs.net has over 37,000 members.
The MPAA move appears to be an attempt to extend the Grokster judgement to sites that merely point to places where the files are. In that case the Supreme Court said any company's technology that has 'the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright...is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties'. UseGroups and search engines have always claimed the same freedom as ISPs and the mail service in that they have no idea what content is using its services. However, the MPAA is claiming that the sites do know what their technology is being used for and is therefore liable.
From around the web
advertisement
- Chrome's shine getting lost in translation
- BytePac: the cardboard hard disk enclosure
- How tech loosens our grip on reality
- Hokum watch: Safer Internet Day
- Why I'm deleting Adobe from my PC
- Prepare to be patronised: it's Safer Internet Day
- Dear Sony, Samsung and every other tech company in the world: stop trying to be Apple
- Will Apple's Final Cut Pro X update placate the pros?
- Smartr Contacts for iPhone review
- Switching to Office 365's Outlook Web App
- Why virtualisation hasn't slowed the growth of data
- How to make Google AdWords work for your business
- The curse of sloppily written software
- Paying for your crimes with Bitcoin
- Behind the scenes: tech support for Formula 1
- The security risk of fat fingers
- Why Windows Phone 7 isn't quite ready for business
- When will Microsoft stop fiddling with Windows 8?
- Flash down the pan?
- Metro Style apps vs desktop applications
advertisement
